cunnus

Uncertain. Various theories include:

• Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn (“woman”), whence it would be cognate with Mycenaean Greek 𐀓𐀙𐀊 (ku-na-ja), Old English cwene, Proto-Slavic *žena, Sanskrit जनि (jani);
• Proto-Indo-European *kutnos (“cover”), cognate with cutis (“skin”). The metaphor is identical to the one connecting Latin vulva and English hull, albeit from a different Indo-European root.
• A relationship to Latin cuneus (“wedge”).
• From Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”), evolved from an original sense of “gash”, “slit”.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkun.nus/, [ˈkʊn.nʊs]

cunnus m (genitive cunnī); second declension

1. woman
   • 40/41 CE, Horatius, Sermones, I, 3:

     nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus taeterrima belli
     causa, sed ignotis perierunt mortibus illi,
     quos venerem incertam rapientis more ferarum
     viribus editior caedebat ut in grege taurus.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

2. (vulgar) cunt, cunny (obscene word for the vulva)
3. (vulgar) female pudendum, pubic hair

Second declension.

• cūlus (“anus, arse”)
• cūnae (“cradle, nest for young birds”)
• cuneus (“wedge”)
• cunīculus (“rabbit”)
• cunnilingus (“cuntlicker”)

• cunnus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cunnus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cunnus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette